7 Ways to market your business and attract potential customers without spending a fortune...
Marketing and generating new potential customers is critical for business success, without them how are you going to make more money and grow your business. There are a lot of ways to promote your business and attract potential customers but here are some of the best no cost/low cost ways of marketing your business both online and offline:
1. Publicity/Editorials - Press Releases
Believe it or not there is plenty of free publicity out there where the media can talk about your business in a positive light. It needs to be newsworthy; if not it will not get printed, so make it interesting for people to read not just a product/service plug. To potential customers this form of promotion carries more weight - it is very credible. Once you have a press release you can submit it to the relevant journalists.
2. Capture Devices - Free E-books and Special Reports
A capture device is something that draws potential customers to your business, whether by phone, mail, store or website. The idea is to give them something for FREE, like a free e-book so that you can obtain their contact details and then promote to them at a later date.
3. Article Writing
Writing high quality, informative articles is a great way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field and getting exposure for your business, all for free. The most useful information you give, the more trust you will build with your readers and the more potential customers you will obtain. The more articles you write the more exposure you will get. You can submit these to online article directories, blogs, and other people websites and to offline magazines, newspapers, journals etc.
4. Other Businesses Newsletters
This is a great way to promote your business to a new group of potential customers for FREE or at minimal cost. You can run a competition, give special offers or write an article, swap space in each other's newsletters. Make sure you include a good offer or call to action to get people to take action.
5. Referrals/Word of Mouth
A happy customer will promote your business by word of mouth to other people for little or no cost. A recommendation is a far more powerful thing than advertising and generally people who have been referred will turn into loyal customers. You can encourage referrals by offering a referral program to your customers.
6. Networking
There are plenty of places to network now-a-days, from online forums and social networking sites to attending networking events and collecting business cards. It is a good idea to combine both online and offline networking because ever though online networking will allow you to connect with more people in less time, offline networking will allow you to meet people face to face. Networking is all about building relationships and getting your name out there. Remember to follow up on the contacts you make otherwise you will just be wasting your time.
7. Strategic Alliances
This is where you build relationships with complementary businesses and help to promote each other. Make sure that both businesses and the customers benefit. You can identify some good partners by looking in similar places that you advertise. For example, an accountant/bookkeeper and a financial broker who targets small businesses is a good alliance or businesses that target children like a children's cloth shop, a children's books business, and a gift store for children would all work well together.
Always remember to collect as many people's details as you can for your database otherwise you will be wasting your time and money as this is a great way of being able to promote to them in the future at no cost.
As you can see you don't have to spend a fortune to market your business and attract potential customers to your business. All you need are proven marketing strategies that actually work.
7 Ways to market your business and attract potential customers without spending a fortune - To learn more about this author, visit Alison Basson's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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